[At-Large] Updates to New gTLD Program Implementation and auctioning model.

[Vittorio Bertola]

Bret Fausett ha scritto:
> On Aug 10, 2008, at 2:20 PM, Alan Greenberg wrote:
>> Using an auction to resolve the conflict does indeed mean that .web
>> will not likely go to a small not-for-profit organization. If that is
>> your concern, then in my mind, you are being somewhat unrealistic.
> 
> I was on the Council when this first came up, and the concern I heard  
> from the ALAC then was about regionalism, rather than "non-profits" v.  
> "for profits." I don't know that we care which among many U.S.  
> corporate entities wins the battle for the next big ASCII TLD gold mine.
> 
> The ALAC concern, as I understood it, was about whether a foreign  
> registry services provider ought to win the bid for the IDN versions  
> of COM/NET/ORG over a competitor in the region in which the language  
> is spoken. At bottom, it's a debate about free trade v. regional  
> protectionism, a subject on which the nations of the world have  
> significantly different positions.

Another case is when the two competing bids have completely different 
purposes and "social value". I.e. what happens if Catalonia applies for 
.cat to serve its 7-million Catalan speakers, but at the same time 
Caterpillar does the same and puts more money on the table, only to use 
the TLD for a nicer URL for their one corporate website?

If I remember well, the last versions of the process presented in Paris 
said that auctions would only be used if all applicants were 
"non-community", ie generic, while if at least one was a community 
applicant then they would have used a beauty contest. But I'm not sure 
whether this is still the intention.

I already said when .xxx was on the table that IMHO there is no way that 
you can get out of this mess without making subjective political 
judgements on who "deserves better", or whether a string is "against 
public policy", etc. In the end, I just hope that these decisions will 
be taken by an accountable political entity (e.g. the Board) rather than 
by an unaccountable "expert panel", disguised as if they could be objective.
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
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